What Matters in Life

Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace is such a good read on "The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose." What I appreciated the most about the book was how it weaves in emotional intelligence throughout the chapters. Also, as it says up front — "Mattering is both a call to action and a blueprint for living a meaningful and purposeful life." It uses many interviews and research to carry its message on what matters in life. "One study found that regular volunteering was linked to higher levels of energy and well being." (pg. 39) As a dedicated volunteer in my life, I can readily verify this statement.

So much of the book focuses on how helping others helps us in our own lives. This matters so much to me.

Here is her powerful TED Talk . . . 

459 Weeks!

When I was reading the May 10, 2026 NYTimes Book Review "CHILDREN'S & YOUNG ADULT BEST SELLERS," I discovered in the top 10 Picture Books section The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin and that it was #7 in the top 10 list AND that it has been on the list 459 weeks.

Well, I immediately went to the library and checked it out. Whew! It is such a beautiful book with magnificent illustrations and charming story. When I read it to a preschool class, the children were fascinated and enjoyed the story and illustrations.

The Ideal Team Player

When it comes to finding a team player for a faculty, board of trustees, a non-profit organization, a town select board, etc., you will want to read The Ideal Team Player book by Patrick Lencioni. I have read just about all of his books and they are terrific. What I love the most about his books is that the first two-thirds of the book read like a novel story, and the the last third provides non-fiction advice on how to deal with the setting of the beginning of the book.

In The Ideal Team Player Lencioni discusses three key characteristics of a Team Player; HUMILITY, HUNGER, and STAR. Here is a video of a brief view of the book, and you can meet author Patrick Lencioni.

ANOTHER Excellent Book Review

 

Here is a link to a new book review of Forward backwards - THE SAME as posted in the spring issue of Tomorrow's Child, a magazine from the Montessori Foundation. Launa Schweitzer, a long time educator and head of a school wrote the excellent review and did a wonderful job capturing the essence of the book. 

By the way, the price of the book has been reduced from $13.99 to $8.50 to enable more people to buy the book!

The Importance of Humor in Our Lives

Catch the value of humor in our lives by reading Humor Me by Chris Duffy. When he is not writing books, Chris is a standup comedian. 

In his last few pages, Duffy captures humor nicely. "My understanding of the core goal of humor is simple: It's to make people laugh and have a good time. All the other benefits that I've explored over the course of this book flow from there. So if you're doing things right, humor is going to bring people in, welcome them, and make them have a good time." (pg. 216)

Here is his excellent 7-minute TED Talk, "How to Find Laughter Anywhere." 

A Special Eric Carle Book . . . and Others

If you are not familiar with author Eric Carle, this is a perfect book for getting to know him. I am reading it to the preschool children I read to each week. This book has 11 one-page Aesop fable stories retold and illustrated by Carle that children love. His illustrations are of the best in the business of children books.  

Along the way, I discovered this YouTube video that is a reading of many of his books. It is amazing! Oh, and by the way, here is a link to his museum, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. 

Here Comes The Sun

This post is not the popular song by the Beatles (😎), but it is the recently published book by Bill McKibben. The author presents the world's transition in electric power and heat from coal, oil, and gas to solar and wind power. The statistics he shares are so impressive. 

Here is a link to a brief YouTube video to capture your interest in reading his book. The statistics he presents are so impressive and a wake-up call on energy production and use. I lean towards the solar panels as I have 12 on my house. The savings alone are amazing.

Children Are So Sharp

I was reading to a group of preschool children as I do every Tuesday and Thursday, and I thought it might be good to read a book I discovered in their school library. Make Van Gogh's Bed by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo was a children's book that I thought they would enjoy. Van Gogh was one of the artists  along with other artists of that period. 

When I turned to the page below, I introduced the painting by saying that my wife and I crossed this water-lily pond in France. Before I could say anything further, Frankie, a 4-year old class listener, said, "Monet." My jaw dropped, and I quickly recovered by saying, "Yes Frankie, it was painted by artist Claude Monet, well done!"

 

A MUST READ FOR KIDS & PARENTS

As a follow-up to his fantastic bestseller, The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt has a graphic book that beautifully appeals to kids and adults — especially parents and educators. This is a must-read book for preteens, teens, young adults, and parents. 

The book mentions that AI and technology goals are pitching social media apps no matter what the human damage results are, so long as financial profits are high priority. The book and this video below have Jonathan's two simple student rules for going forward with today's technology: "Use technology as a tool. Don't let it use you. And, second, fill your life with real freedom, friends, and fun."

Take five minutes to view this YouTube interview with Jonathan Haidt.

DD Reads Boffo to Many Children

I—also known as DD—love to read books to children. I have been reading to them since 1980 — first to my children, then to children ages preschool through middle school.

The characters come to life with the different voices I use, which I do now every Tuesday and Thursday at two different schools. Boffo - The Great Motorcycle Race by Frank Dickens is a classic and a favorite for 3- to 8-year old children. This — and many others — YouTube below was made so I could share with children because of COVID restrictions. If I get lots of views, I will periodically share other readings.

"Permission to Feel" Emotional RULER Skills & Guiding Young Ones

I first met author Marc Brackett at a conference when I was heading a toddler through eighth grade school in Brooklyn, NY. What I love about Permission To Feel is that it says so much about adult — parents and educators — caring for children and children responses.

The book's beginning introduction is an acronym RULER — Recognizing Emotions, Understanding Emotions, Labeling Emotions, Expressing Emotions, Regulating Emotions and how it helps the reader understand how to view and process emotions.

When reading Chapters 9 - Emotions at Home and 10 - Emotions at School: From Preschool to College with all of the true-life examples, gives the reader guidance on helping you guide children regarding emotional intelligence for you and them. Marc supplies such good true stories that convince you how good emotional intelligence is for children and adults.

If you have not already read Marc's book, here is a website that gives you more about Marc Brackett and his work.

Guiding Children To Be Kind - Part 2

I bumped into this book on kindness as I was gathering books to read to my two preschool classes that I read to each week. Like my previous blog post, I love this book because of how it reaches out to parents, educators, AND children on being kind. So much of what we do as educators and parents is setting the best examples in our own lives to help children move forward with kindness in their lives.

A big thank you to author and illustrator Todd Parr for his beautiful book on kindness! Check out this YouTube to view him reading and discussing the book with children.

Guiding Children To Be Kind

Being kind is paramount in this day and age. Guiding — modeling for and building — children to be kind to others is so important. By the way, the previous views for my October 10 blog post "Being Kind Helps Others and Oneself" has over 85,000 views!

So, as a follow-up to the last blog post, I found a beautiful children's book on being kind that I read to my preschool classes this week.        I like to be Kind by Aleks Harrison has a similar message as presented in the previous post. It was such a treat to see the children's smiles as I read.

Being Kind Helps Others and Oneself

Simple as it may sound, being kind to one another can be life altering. This is helpful to children when they view adults being kind to others. Also, being kind to others can be powerful to oneself.

Here is a beautiful short piece on being kind from author Steve Garnaas Holmes

Great PALINDROME Resources

A friend sent this "50 PALINDROMES" sheet to me last week, and it is terrific. (If you have trouble viewing this on your computer, try clicking on this link). 

I could have used it when I was teaching my 5th grade math class about palindromes . . . 40 years ago. Also, this 40-year old experience has been captured in my book Forward backwards  THE SAME.

Also, the book SO MANY DYNAMOS! by John Agee is a very popular and amusing book.

GOODMORNING – Reading to Children

The book Goodnight Moon written by Margaret Wise Brown is celebrating its 75th year. It is a book that I have read many many times to children. 

Then, while walking through the children's section at the library, I stumbled upon the book Goodnight iPad, written in 2011 by Ann Droyd (Get it?). Nevertheless, the covers look alike but the contents of each are very different!

                              

The important aspect of these two books is a perspective for parents and educators, understanding the history and future of technology and social media and where they can lead us. One of the best resources for understanding all of this is the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt that has been on the NYTimes top 10 list for the past 72 weeks. 

Emotional Intelligence is So Important in Our Lives

I have been enthralled by Emotional Intelligence (EI) throughout my career in education. Over the years, I have spent lots of time understanding, teaching, and implementing EI in my work and life. To see what I mean, do a search in this blog by typing in "Emotional Intelligence" and see the posts I have dedicated to EI resources. Here are just a few posts:

• For All Educators -> Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence (7/3/15)

• Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (3/3/17)

• On Cue Everyone, "Consider EQ Before IQ": Leading with Emotional Intelligence (12/31/21)

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Here is the latest EI resource I have grabbed on to ---->

I am in the middle of the book, and it has so much good information on employing EI with teams. I bumped into the author, Dr. Vanessa Druskat, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of New Hampshire when we both presented at the May TEDx Portsmouth. Here is a link to her presentation. She gives so much strong information regarding team building in her talk AND in her book.

WHAT IF . . . Reading to Children

I had an amazing opportunity to talk about the importance of reading to children and read the book I wrote — Forward Backwards THE SAME — at the recent TEDx Portsmouth 2025 event at the Music Hall. I read to an audience with over 900 people. The audience was so engrossed, and the TEDx staff was outstanding in how they presented all 14 individual speakers, moving towards a "What If . . ." theme.

Here is an excellent GRANITE GOODNESS website review by Andy DeMeo presenting all that TED does.

Great Stories to Read to Middle Schoolers

I have always enjoyed reading to children. Here is an article — "The Joy of Reading to Children" — I wrote for "Montessori Life" magazine with the American Montessori Society back in 2017. It can give you some important information and thoughts. 

Also, High Marks - Stories That Make Good Reading compiled by Annette Sloan & Albert Capaccio is a book I have used over the years to read to middle school students. Here is a sample of the stories students enjoy:

"The Lion Roared" by Virginia Eiseman
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
"How Much Land Does a Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy
"The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassant
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs

Also, the book includes thoughtful questions at the end of each story.

A Joy — Reading To Children

It is so good to have libraries all around. Our local Greenland, NH library has such beautiful and well stocked books for children and teens. AND it's all FREE! 

As I have mentioned earlier, I read to preschoolers at two different schools, and many of my books-to-read come from their school and town libraries AND my own books that have accumulated over the years. Here is a children's favorite, Boffo The Great Motorcycle Race.

What a joy it is to be with them watching their faces as I read stories, especially when I change voices of characters in the readings. Here is a Boffo read I implemented during COVID when I could not be with the children . . .